Postal Service Predicts Busiest Holiday Ever

[1]At its annual press conference concerning the year-end period, U.S. Postal Service yesterday said it expects a record holiday season[2], with 20% more packages shipped than last year.

Postal officials forecast that 365 million packages will go through the mail this holiday season. That doesn’t include the more than 18 billion cards and letters that will transit the system between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In a story in The Washington Post, postal officials declined to comment on why the 20% increase is higher than the projections of Federal Express (NYSE:FDX[3]), which forecast a growth of 10%, or United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS[4]), which forecast 13% growth.

Officials also declined to comment on what the increase in shipping would do to the agency’s bottom line. The USPS is expected to lose $15 billion in 2012 and has had numerous battles with Congress about its profitability. Legislation is pending in the House, which has already passed the Senate, that would allow the USPS to save money by ending Saturday delivery and to better manage its retirement funding.